It's Valentine's Day, so I'm feeling in the mood for some simply cute Malec interaction. Hope everyone had a nice day, and if not, feel free to bitch about it to me. I'm here. :)
The next day, Alec decided to risk going back to Alicafé. He was half-hoping he'd see Magnus again… but then he wondered why he was even half hoping for such a thing. He should be dreading it.
He ordered his usual black coffee and went to his usual table, opened his sketchbook and started on his usual morning routine of sketching and coming up with words to describe the resulting character. He ended up drawing the cat-eyed man again, in silhouette like usual, but when he came to write down words, he felt lost. He sat in silence for longer than he cared to admit, hearing the occasional ding of the door when someone else came in. After some time, however, the ding was accompanied by a joyous shout of "Hello, Alexander!"
"Hi, Magnus," Alec sighed resignedly as he closed his book.
"Oh no, don't stop what you were doing," he chastised. "I can keep you company and be perfectly silent! Watch me!" And with that, he slammed a book down on the table next to his rainbow drink and opened it to the beginning. Alec, examining the first few lines, realized that it was All the Locked Doors, and a chill wormed its way down his spine. He stared at Magnus reading his book—his book—for a few moments before the other man looked up in amusement.
"You don't have to actually watch me," he said sheepishly. "Really, Alexander, go back to what you were doing."
"No, no, it's fine. If you want to read, read, but you weren't, you know, interrupting my work or anything…" Alec cursed himself for stammering. Magnus looked up again and smiled, clapping the book closed.
"Won't you lose your place?" Alec asked, gesturing at the book.
"Nope. I have this baby memorized to the last comma. Besides, I've read it so many times that it doesn't make much of a difference if I start in the middle. Books are my happy place, you could say."
"Ah, well, music's mine," Alec offered a smile. "Most of the time I'll be listening to music while I work."
"You like art, too? Ragnor called me yesterday and told me he met you. I am so sorry you had to go through that," he grinned. "And I mourn the part of your soul that undoubtedly died when he first talked to you." At Alec's silence, he chuckled. "That's one thing we have in common, though: art. I love to draw."
Alec smiled. Maybe Magnus was an actual human being after all. "Good to know. But that's no excuse for this… whatever it is." He poked Magnus' drink like it was a rodent. "I looked up the ingredients. It's kind of scary what they put in this stuff."
"Obviously, darling. Drinks aren't just neon orange on their own." Magnus sipped the drink, smiling around the straw. Presently his lips were glossed dark blue with silver glitter, and—by the Angel, Alec, don't think about his lips. Magnus laughed and swirled the drink with the straw, causing the rainbow to spin in the cup.
"No, they must have some incentive to be so ridiculous." Alec looked Magnus right in the eyes as he spoke, earning an eyebrow raise and a smile that rose on half of Magnus' face.
"I'm sure we all do. Except you. You don't have to be ridiculous to fit in this world. When I saw you painting the other day, you looked so calm. It's been impossible for me to be perfectly content since then. I haven't been able to be satisfied with any of my songs." He looked sad, then his eyes widened suddenly. Alec just stared. No, there's no chance. It's impossible. His brain decided now would be an excellent time to stop functioning properly, and seemed to disconnect from his mouth, leaving him unable to speak.
"Is that what all the writing on your arm is? Song lyrics?" He eventually managed to ask.
Magnus looked down. "Oh—yeah, just an idea I got yesterday when I was meeting with your sister."
Alec leaned away. "What? What do you want with my sister?"
"Nothing, dear, I can be friends with her if I like. She has lovely fashion sense. The two of us will certainly be going shopping together at some point within the next month."
"God, Izzy's enough of a nightmare shopping on her own," Alec muttered. Magnus' grin widened rather maliciously in response, but he said nothing. Alec could only bear so much of this before he had to ask what Magnus was thinking about.
"Oh, nothing. Just imagining different outfits on you. I think you'd look dazzling in something blue… something shimmery, maybe, and tight… and I don't think your hair needs to be cut, but if you combed it out of your eyes…."
"Don't try to get me to play dress up," Alec grumbled. "Izzy did enough of that too."
"I find it adorable how much you let your little sister get away with," Magnus replied. He took another sip of his drink. The purple part, which had been on the bottom, was gone now. Alec imagined Magnus filling up with purple and glitter. Then he imagined Magnus filling up with sunset, and it turned his skin into light and color. He whipped out his sketchbook again and drew quickly, pencil mapping out the lines and edges of Magnus' body as though he'd done it a thousand times before. He drew as though rushing to fill the page, as though Magnus was going to burn out and disappear like a star.
The glittery man sat patiently, eyes resting gently on Alec's face. He wondered what Alec was drawing to make him so frantic, so desperate. He waited as the pencil lines convened to look like him, and caught his breath. He felt for the first time ever that there was a picture of him that was actually him, unlike the grinning shot of him on the ads for his shows or any other photos that felt forced. He looked at the lyrics on his arm and looked at Alec studiously sketching. This man was becoming more inspiring with every breath he took. Magnus pulled out his pen again and wrote on the front of his forearm, sure of the lyrics this time, sure of Alec this time.
I think that if you looked, you would find
This paradise doesn't need to stay in your mind
I hear your voice, it's in my head
Makes me wish I wasn't so dead
Because here, with you, it isn't so hard
To get dance with the light and hold hands with the dark
To part the clouds and soak in the sun
Feeling so hopeless was never this fun
And here, with you, it isn't so bad
You remind me of the life I still have
Of the whispers I felt when you told me your name
Feeling like finally something will change
And here, with you, no shadows will fall
How have I been alive so long
When I haven't been living at all?
He glanced up to find Alec watching him, head tilted like a puppy. His blue eyes were round and alluring. And now maybe Magnus wasn't so sure of himself anymore. The one thing that he was sure of, however, was that as every day went by, he grew exponentially more doomed.
"Magnus? You okay?" Alec wondered quietly.
"No," Magnus smiled up at his friend. "Thanks to you, I'm perfect."
He wanted to paint the ocean the rosy color that flooded Alec's face. But he settled for drowning in his eyes instead.
Sorry for such a short chapter... I promise this weekend I'll put up something longer, since I won't be drowning in school. *rolls eyes* oh well. Hope you like it. Have a great day. *sends hugs*